Monthly Archives: July 2017

My Top Ten Variable Player Power Games

TopXX Games

We have now reached my third favourite game mechanic (by number of times it appears in games in my collection).

Variable player powers. I certainly do like this mechanic. For starters it adds much needed replay-ability to a game. Unless you are going out of your way to play the same character/faction with the same abilities each game (assuming that is an option) then each game is different and requires different tactics. I also think having different characters/factions with that have different abilities makes the game better, and reinforce the theme of the game. If you look at Nations the Dice Game, it’s a great game, but despite each player being a different civilization, you really don’t feel that you are that civilization there is nothing unique about them to make you think “oh I’m the Egyptians”. To some extent I also think that about Kemet which I love. You don’t really feel that you are follows of a particular god.

So here are my Top 10 Games with the Variable Player Powers…

  1. (Top 100 position – 1) Scythe
  2. (Top 100 position – 2 ) T.I.M.E Stories
  3. (Top 100 position – 3 ) Star Wars: Destiny
  4. (Top 100 position – 8 ) Santorini
  5. (Top 100 position – 10) Neuroshima Hex!
  6. (Top 100 position – 12) Mechs vs. Minions
  7. (Top 100 position – 13) Android: Netrunner
  8. (Top 100 position – 18) Imperial Settlers
  9. (Top 100 position – 20) Zombicide
  10. (Top 100 position – 21) Run, Fight, or Die!

Ultra Rare Costa Gaming Session 

coffee shop gaming

A very very long over due Costa Gaming was held Sunday between Jonathan and myself. Jonathan wanted to try Caverna: Cave vs Cave as a two player game (he had only tried it solo that morning). Plus he had Le Havre: Inland Port he wanted to do a learning game of.

Between the car park and Costa lies The Works, well its a lot nearer to Costa than the car park. But it qualifies as between so I will stick to that description of its location. I thought you know what I’ll quickly pop in on the off chance that they might have a board game bargain in. I mean they did sell Sun Tzu which at the time was a bargain for this nice little two player game. Mind you they also sold the awfully bland deckbuilder built around the online game World of Tanks.  I didn’t see any games there but I did see some jigsaw puzzles that looked more challenging than Barenpark. I ended up buying a couple of childrens Lego Star Wars story books for their Lego minifigs on the cover. £2.50 each for an R2 and Rebel Snowtrooper was a good deal I thought. Whilst paying I saw two home made cakes by the till. This was enough of an in for the shop assistant to up sell me into buying raffle tickets to win them. It was for charity and five tickets for a quid wasn’t going to break the bank. So I bought five tickets and won a sponge cake with a lemon curd filling.
Jonathan was already at Costa when I strolled in with my purchases and winnings.

We started off with Caverna: Cave vs Cave. I really am liking this as a light-ish two player game. I ended up with a nice little engine that got me lots of gold (which are worth points at the end of the game). By the end scoring I maxed out on 19 gold. While Jonathan had built more rooms in his cave than me. Which when we added up everything meant that we actually tied on points.

Oh another reason for me liking this game. Shortest person is the starting player! Thematically it should be the most dwarven looking but I’ll take this.

Next up was  Le Havre: Inland Port. I have to admit I have been close to getting this since playing  Caverna: Cave vs Cave. But luckily I hadn’t done anything about it. We actually gave up on this game, with the intention of watching tutorials on line, and trying to work out what we were missing about the game. We were reading the rules and it didn’t make sense how we could buy stuff, and take all of our actions, especially the first player. It was a very frustrating experience. I think we have worked out those misunderstandings since Sunday. I don’t think that the rule book is as clear as it could or should be.

So with that frustrating experience lingering around, we chatted away, righting the wrongs of the word, catching up on life events, etc. By the time we had finished it was closing time at Costa. Thanks Jonathan for a great afternoon of gaming and chat. We must do this more often. We once did. Lets male it a thing again.

And finally a big thank you to Jonathan for providing me with photos of me in board gaming action.

BTN June 17

by the numbers, gaming stats

June started off with the UK Games Expo. I played some games there but not as many as the majority who attended I would imagine.

Dale and I are playing Star Wars:Destiny a LOT! Which has really pushed up the number of plays this month. With playing it so much is it no wonder it was number 3 in my Top 100 Games (that I own and have played)?

I am surprised how few actual games I have played this month. I know that I was unable to attend one FEG@WL this month, and a couple of weekend sessions fell through. But still I’m shocked at how low this was. Probably one of the lowest months on that front.

Let’s look at some other measures. Still no attractive graph. So you are stuck with plain raw data.

The final section as usual presents the data graphically so we can try and see trends.

My Game of the Month…

Out of the new games to me that I played this month, only one really warrants this prestigious award, and that’s Orleans . The other new games for the month were on the whole good, but not game of the month material. Ok Kanagawa may have got it otherwise.  

Worst Game of the Month…

This won’t come as any surprise to anyone, but we do have a candidate for this infamous award this month. Do bears shit in the woods? Well they have and it contained this game. Yep Barenpark is my Worst Game of the Month for June. I’m not going to say anything else about this horrendous game. I’ve already said enough about it through out the month.

Hopefully hitting the table in July…

But going to put the ones from the last month back on for July.

  • Magic the Gathering – hoping to get a league running for the Summer.
  • Broom Service – final month on this list.
  • Mech vs Minions – no movement on this either.

  • The weekly Friday Evening Gaming at The White Lion (or FEG@WL as I call it)
  • Every second Wednesday of the month we have our monthly meet up. This month that second Wednesday is 12th, and will be at The White Lion.

If you are in the area and want to attend one of the events, please visit the Fenland Gamers Facebook page for further details about the event. Hope to see you there.

Pandemic Iberia Standees 

Uncategorized

Like Pandemic Iberia? Well I do. So does my friend Duncan (described as the Scottish version of me but likeable!)

Duncan has done some amazing work for the game by creating standees for it to replace the pawns.

I’ve stolen one of his photos of them below. Because that’s the sort of person I am. Take, take, take.

Not only that he’s shared them with the gaming community by putting the file up on bgg for others to do the same.

Obviously this shows just how much nicer than me he is.

You can get the file HERE

Infamy, infamy, they all have it in for me!

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game of thrones

It wasn’t planned this way, but yesterdays and the game in two weeks time are a brilliant way to celebrate the start of the much anticipated new series of The Game of Thrones this month. In fact I think the next game is the same weekend. It’s also that weekend I can start taking holiday also. An exciting weekend indeed. 
Yesterday the people rose up with the aim to over throw the current incumbent of the Iron Throne Jakub.


Four players again meant that we were playing with the Feast for Crows expansion. Justin was playing for the first time, and drew the Starks. I drew the Baratheons, which was a first for me. Chris got the Lannisters and reigning tyrant Jakub was once again Arrayn.

Chris was the first one scoring, his House objective automatically kicked in. I had to attack Chris because we both needed Kings Landing. I wanted it more! 

And I managed to hold on to it for a large chunk of the game. Chris and Jakub formed an unholy alliance and ganged up on me. Whilst Justin was doing a good job of being a distraction to them. Sadly not enough for me to sneak the victory.

Chris took back Kings Landing with me one round away from winning. I was left with two ships as my only forces left on the board. I desperately needed a mustering to ocurr.

That unholy alliance wouldn’t hold out, I was sure of it. Both thought they were able to grab the win. Sadly for Chris Jakub was in a better position than he was.  Jakub completed an objective for the final point he needed to get the win and strengthen his hold on the Iron Throne.

We had alliances, deals, no betrayals that I remember. 

So well done to Jakub for successfully defending your throne.  Sadly for you, but luckily for the rest of us you are unable to defend it next game. So enjoy your short extended reign. 

Kung Fu Art School in a Cave

FEG@WL, Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night I was prepared! I had a bag of two player games with me, plus a couple that played up to four but also played well at two. But that was assuming I wasn’t going to be the only person turning up.

Luckily Edmund came along to prevent me from looking like Billy No Mates. 

While waiting for Edmund to arrive I had a little mystery sitting in my inbox. What had Games Lore posted to me? I hadn’t ordered anything from them recently, had I pre-ordered something and forgotten about it? I didn’t think I had. I am less than a year from hitting fifty. So I’m getting old, stuff like memory is failing. The email from ParcelForce contained no clue as to what it was Games Lore were sending me. A bit further down the page I could see an email from the UK shipping partner for Xia: Legends of a Drift System. Finally they were dispatching my copy of the Kickstarter (yeah I hadn’t got lucky the other day). Minutes of puzzling, and searching back through corrupted memories passed. Wait didn’t the UK shipping partner say in the last Kickstarter update they’d be using ParcelForce? I looked at the courier shipping reference in the email. Then went to the ParcelForce email. The parcel from Games Lore had the same reference! Games Lore and the UK shipping partner were the same company! I’m sure they have legit tax avoidance reasons for two separate company names. But Xia is on its way. Oh yes looking forward to it sitting in my pile of shame, waiting to be played and gathering dust. 

Our evening of two player fun started off with the new arrival of Caverna: Cave vs Cave. As a learning game it went fairly well.  Only one real misplay which we picked up on the third round, and it didn’t really affect things too much. Just our caves were slightly less impressive than they could have been.

I thought Edmund was going to run away with the win. But it ended up being closer than I had expected. 

I liked this two player version of Caverna. We know my introductory games of both Caverna and Agricola were some what wanting, and not enjoyable experiences. So it’s surprising I like the two player version of Agricola, Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small and now Caverna: Cave vs Cave.

We followed up our cave building with some martial arts practice in Onitama. We played with the new expansion Sensei’s Path. Which is just more movement cards. The expansion fits inside the main box with the original cards. And we have even more variety and replayability. It’s not a must have expansion, but definitely one to get after playing the game a lot and starting to get bored with the original cards.

So while Edmund kicked my butt at this game also, I consumed a lovely medium rare steak. I had decided to celebrate a good appraisal at work with meat of a higher quality than my usual Friday night gaming fare. Plus it was payday and I hadn’t had a steak in a long while.

After three games of Onitama, the score was 2-1 to Edmund. 

It was time to take Edmund from the floor of the dojo to the peaceful serene art studio to learn to paint. Our next and final game was Kanagawa.

Edmund rocked the objective tiles. But sadly only managed to get two points on his painting and studio. Which is where I scored a lot of points, and grabbed the win.

It really was great having a chance to get some two player games to the table. They don’t get played nearly as often as they should. So thank you Edmund for coming along and not totally wiping the floor with me.